Chapleau Moments

by MichaelJ. Morris

With winter here it seemed like an opportune time to recall the memorable Chapleautobogganslideprojectundertakenin 1956. I remembered that Ian Macdonald had been involved in the project and indeed had writtenaboutit,sothiscolumnisbasedonhis articleathttp://chapleau.com/.

Ian wrote that Chapleau High School students built the toboggan slide on the rock behind the old golf club building which was across from the town beach and Chapleau Public School. For those of you who don't recall the old golf club building was about in the same place as the "new" one. It had been built in about 1927 and was replaced in about 1977.

"Itwassimilartoasluicethattheyusein logging. The toboggans went like hell." Ian noted.Theysuredid!Whatfun!

Theschoolboughtthelumbertomakea slide. The crew assembled what appears to be twelve-foot sections of the "sluice section of theslide.”Anothergroupwouldtrundleupthe hillwithacompletedsection.Obviously,itwas all put together at the top,Ianwrote.

In the photo with this column, you'll notice the jackets with the big "C" on them with ChapleauHighspelled outontheback.

"My recollection was that we got a specialdealwiththese jacketsifweonlyused two colours (blue and whiteinthiscase).We (student council) then voted to change the HighSchoolcoloursto blue and white from thepreviousred,green andwhitetojustifythe jacket purchase. I think they changed backtored,green,and white the following year,"Ianwrote.

Ianadded:"Itwastypicalofhowyoung people in those days seemed to be able to get together as a team and make things happen. Otherprojectsincludedmakinghockeyrinks,a dance floor behind the Anglican Church etc.

You don't see as much of this type of thing anymore. This was, of course, a year or so before you had television in Chapleau and similarotherdistractionsforpeople.Iexpectit is this 'quality of community' that people remember about the town and why they enjoy beingremindedofit."

Somemayrecallthetobogganslideon SlaughterhouseHillfromthe1930s. Thanks for your help, Ian, and let me just add a few words about him. Ian began workingfortheCanadianPacificRailwayasa fireman in 1956 when he was in Grade 11 at CHS,andhewasoneofthelasttobetrainedon steam power. However, he later attended the UniversityofManitoba,graduatingin1969as anarchitect.

After working abroad Ian joined the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba in 1978 and was promoted to full professorin1993andthenservedasheadofthe graduate department of architecture at the university starting in 1999. Ian is officially "retired"nowbuthavingworkedwithhimona chapterforBillMcLeod'snewbook,heseems tobeverybusy.

One of his projects is an architecture programforAthabascaUniversity.

Seealsohttp://chapleau.com/.